Pasts Intertwined A Blanket Scenario
by Cindy Shilanka
Summary: Sure, the Kenshin-gumi has beaten the formidable rival Shishio (just barely) and Ken-san has recovered. This is cause for celebration! But when the celebration is too much for Sanosuke, he goes out walking to find Yumika, who is dwelling on the past. T
1. Lost, again

Disclaimer: I say it once, I'll say it as many times as I keep writing these things; I DO NOT own the characters of Rurouni Kenshin. Nor will I ever. I merely love them all so much, I must write about them. Not without my own splash of character, of course. Therefore, the main female character in this story is MINE. Don't take her, or you will suffer dire consequences. Anywho, like I said in my other fic posted, her story meshes with the characters of RK, and her backstory affects them in ways I'm sure really never happened. It's a FAN FIC. Meaning, it's not all perfectly in line with the storyline. So sue me. Actually don't, just don't complain about the backstory things not being accurate. I'm sorry that I'm not an expert on Japanese history. Though I can give you a pretty darn good likeness of the RK chars. Deal with it, or don't read this. And I'll shut up now so you can read the actual fic. Please try and enjoy!

Sanosuke Sagara was completely, totally, and utterly agitated.

The Owia in Kyoto where they had been staying for some time with part of the Oniwabashu was usually at a fairly high decibel of noise, but today it seemed to be at an extreme. He needed to get out. He darted around random drunk members of the Oniwabanshu singing very much off key towards the door. Upon reaching it, he turned back briefly to shake his head at the motley crew. Though he knew in the back of his mind that had he been in a better mood, he probably would have had a bit of sake himself.

He didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he reached the end of the street. If he heard the shrill, drunken shriek: "Aoshi-sama!! Where is Lord Aoshi??" from Misao one more time, the weasel-girl would definitely be harmed in some way. He looked down the streets of Kyoto around him. Near deserted. The sun was setting in the west, a blazing array of yellows, oranges, and reds.

_I'll just go for a short walk,_ he told himself. _I'll just walk for a little ways, then go back to the Owia._

He started walking in a random direction, taking note of _which_ direction so he wouldn't wind up embarrassingly lost again. But as he walked, his hands in the slits on the sides of his pants, his thoughts began to wander.

This was to be one of their last nights in Kyoto; Kenshin had regained his health, and the rest of the Kenshin-gumi were eager to get back to Tokyo. They were all in high spirits, having some sort of 'farewell party' back at the Owia; thus the rise in noise. But he had felt that something just wasn't right, and he had noticed it over the last week or so, if not just since the whole Shisho battle. Yumika had been acting strange.

A smirk found Sano's lips as he thought of Yumika. Yumika was a black-haired, green-eyed young woman who had showed up back in Tokyo a while back. She mysteriously used the Hiten Mitsurugi Ryuu, and if that wasn't enough, she used it with a sakabatou, such like Kenshin. However, according to the thugs who had been trying to capture her when he had first come across her, the reverse-blade hadn't stopped her from killing. Who or why he'd never known, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

All he knew was that she _loved_ to torture him. He bristled as he remembered her first offense. Getting dragged through the center of Tokyo while he was unconscious had not helped his local reputation or his pride at all. Normally, she would always tease him, having a snappy comeback to whatever he threw at her, and a few insults to boot. However, she had not thrown a single insult or rude comment his way for an entire week.

Thus, Sanosuke could tell something was wrong with her. He hadn't found out what yet, it not being his style to suddenly look all caring towards one that he had bickered with since he'd known her. And he _had_ been enjoying the silence. But guilt had been gnawing at the back of his mind, and he felt he should find out what is up. Of course, this would have been difficult to do anyway, since she seemed to be avoiding him.

As Sano tore his eyes off his feet, he realized in a rush that he had been walking for quite a while without paying attention to where he was going. Therefore, he was lost once again.

He muttered some random profanity under his breath as he scanned around him. He spotted someone standing a long ways down a street to his left. He glanced at the sun, over halfway set, and decided that he'd better swallow his pride and do the forbidden: ask for directions.

Starting out towards the figure, he trotted along at a jog, eager to get this over with and out of the way. As he jogged up to the figure, he took notice that there were very few houses around, and more and more trees. How far had he walked? This region was a mountainous region, and as the sun sank lower, the temperature was sinking with it.

"Hey!" Sano said as he got closer to the figure, "could you-erm-help me out?"

As the figure turned to look at him as he stopped near, he let out a small sigh of relief. It was Yumika. A familiar face, and someone who could get them both back.

Yumika turned to face him, looking at him with a distant expression for a moment before forcing a slight smile. Sanosuke. The rooster-head. She had, indeed, made a point not to be around where Sano was. And now, her heart pounding in her ears confirmed her feelings. For only the second time in her life, she was terrified.

She didn't show it, of course, and smiled a bit more. "Lost, Sanosuke?"

"Yumika," he verbally confirmed, "you're the last person I'd expect to meet out here. Uh . . . yeah, I kinda did get . . . disoriented. What are you doing way out here, anyway?"

"Well, I've been looking for something here in Kyoto since I got here, and I finally found it today," she answered after hesitating slightly.

"Oh? And what would that be? If you don't mind my askin' . . ."

She shook her head. "It's right here." She nodded her head towards a building in the direction she had been facing before she had turned towards Sano.

It was a large broken down building, probably a bit bigger than the Kamia Dojo Sanosuke had been to so many times before. It looked like it had once been rather nice, but now it was in ruin and rubble. Some parts charred black from fire, and small green plants could be seen growing out of the rubble.

"Why would you wanna look for something that's a pile of rubble?" Sano wondered aloud, trying to figure out if there was a connection between this and her recent behavior. Well, her _lack_ of behavior.

Her expression grew distant again before she answered. "That was my home. I was born and raised here in Kyoto."

Oh. Drat, he'd his a sensitive subject yet again. "Th-that was your house?" he stammered. "I didn't know you grew up in Kyoto."

_How little you know of me . . ._ Yumika thought. _Though it is actually better that way._ Though all she said out loud was; "Yes . . ."

After sitting in an uncomfortable moment of silence, Yumika broke it by saying; "We should start back to the Owia. They might worry about us, and despite it being on the warm side back in central Kyoto, up here it can sometimes even snow this time of year. A lot." She turned, her arms pulled inside her yukata, and started walking.

"Hey, wait!" Sano jogged up to her. "You know, Yumika, you haven't been . . . really . . . normal since, it seems, the battle with that maniac mummy. Are you, . . . ya know, . . . okay?"

Yumika blinked. Was this coming from Sano's mouth? The one she had teased relentlessly?_ Then again,_ she reminded herself, _my sudden lay off of teasing probably wasn't that apparent to really anyone but him. Everyone else's minds have been preoccupied with other things._ "Why . . . do you ask?"

"Because . . ." he began uncomfortably, "well, you just haven't been throwing any insults or witty comeback at me for a week! I mean, seriously, you probably don't realize just how often you insult me, but you do! And judging from what I know of your personality, your views of a person don't change overnight. I mean, if you've got something to say, just say it and get it out!"

Yumika's eyes had grown wide. She opened her mouth to say something, but a sudden touch of wet coldness on her cheek changed her subject entirely. She suddenly noticed that they were on a dirt trail that was slightly muddy. "It's snowing! I think we went the wrong way! We're further up in the mountains!!"

"_What?_ Well, you let us here!"

"Me? I was following you!"

"But I was following _you_!!"

As the snow quickly started falling heavier, Yumika sighed exasperatly. "Okay. It's no time for this blame game. We need to find shelter and fast; blizzards can strike hard and swiftly up here."

"Where?" Sano inquired, "there's nothing up here!!"

Yumika's eyes darted around, searching for something, anything to help. "The trail," she suddenly observed, "the trail is worn down quite a bit; that means it has been used before, if not frequently. There has to be some form of shelter up the trail."

"Okay then. Let's go, I guess."


	2. Only one Blanket

As they walked, the snow continued to fall; steadily heavier. Soon, they were fighting against an icy blizzard and trudging through nearly knee-deep snow. Both had their arms folded across their chest in an attempt to keep warm that was failing for the both of them.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Yumika squinted at something a ways in front of them.

"There!" she shouted over the wind, "there's a hut we can take shelter in!"

"Good!"

Their hopes lifted slightly, they began to make their way slowly to the hut. Suddenly, Yumika, who was in front of Sano, stopped and said: "Don't move."

A pack of wolves stepped noiselessly out of the trees, surrounding them. Their teeth were bared, the wind whipping at their slightly snowy fur coats.

Sanosuke smirked at the animals around them.

"They're just dogs, I can take 'em!" He cracked the knuckles on his left hand.

"But, Sanosuke . . ." Yumika began, turning towards him, "your hand isn't-" In a rush, she felt teeth sink into her right leg. Immediately he sword was out, and she was striking the wolf clamped to her right thigh. It whimpered at the first strike, but then just intensified the hold on her leg.

As this was going on, Sano was trying to fend off three at once, the other wolves taking the first's action as a signal to attack. He threw one away, then attempted to grab another.

Yumika, finally fed up with a wolf attached to her leg, killed the animal with one stab through it's torso. Staggering as two more jumped at her, she blocked one, with her sword, sending it flying near Sanosuke. The other had more success. As its fellow wolf flew towards Sano, it sunk it's teeth into her left calf. Growling at the new pain, Yumika wasted no time with this one, stabbing downwards through the spine, killing it instantly. Her eyes darted towards Sanosuke, the rest of the dogs centered around him.

"Sano!! Move!!" she yelled, struggling to stand.

Sano kicked a wolf off him, then rolled off to one side.

"Doo-ryu-sen!!!" Yumika shouted, and snow and dirt parted as the blast of energy sent three of the wolves flying, the remaining wolves retreating with whimpers and whines.

As Sanosuke picked himself up from the snow, he saw the slouching form of Yumika ahead of him. He plodded up to her, grinning slightly, the rush of battle adrenaline still lingering a bit.

"Well, that was exiting!" he said, quite proud of himself for making it through with only a few minor scratches and teeth marks.

"Yes . . . I suppose it was . . ." Yumika said before her knees buckled under her and she fell into the snow.

Sanosuke's eyes grew wide as he took sudden notice of her blood-soaked hakama. Blood seeped from both of her legs, already turning the snow around her the deep shade of scarlet that is blood.

"Yumika!! Are you okay?!"

Yumika slowly sat up, angry at herself, and annoyed with the pain stabbing at her. "Yes, I'm fine." She attempted to stand, resulting in just falling back down into the blood stained snow. "_Blast!_"

"No, you're not okay," Sanosuke glowered down at her. Almost without hesitating, he crouched down and picked her up, one arm supporting her knees, the other supporting her back.

Yumika, of course, objected to this action. She began to flail, but then desisted, wincing. She sighed, sheathing her bloody sword.

"This doesn't remind you of anything, now does it, Yumika?" Sano teased as he trudged the last length to the hut, attempting to lighten the situation slightly.

Yumika smirked in spite of herself. "Of course not. Why do you ask?"

Sano grinned as he kicked in the door of the hut. He gently set Yumika on the ground, and went back to replace the door.

"Well, it's not much," Sano observed as he turned back to face Yumika, "but it'll at least keep out the wind and-" He trailed off as he saw Yumika staring angrily down at the bleeding wounds on her legs.

"Stupid animals!" she muttered before she began ripping at her hakama, ripping off long strips of the cloth.

"Wh-what are you doing?" Sanosuke asked, staring almost unbelieving at what Yumika was doing to her hakama.

"Making a makeshift bandage for these silly wounds out of non-bloody parts of my hakama. What's it look like?"

"Um- . . ." Sano decided to take this opportunity to better take in his surroundings. It was a rather small one room hut, made entirely out of wood, and there were no windows, one door, and nothing else. Except, he suddenly noticed, a nondescript lump in one corner. Of which, upon further investigation, was going to be very useful to them. Or one of them.

"Oi!" Yumika heard Sano say as something hit her upside the head, "that'll probably be useful!"

Yumika caught the heavy fabric as it slid off her face. "A blanket? . . .is there only one?"

"Yeah, why? What's it matter?"

"Isn't it obvious? We'll be here until morning. If you don't have something to keep warm with, you'll die."

Sano raised his eyebrows. "So . . ."

Yumika rolled her eyes before hucking the blanket, beaning him on the head with it.

"So use it, Sanosuke. No matter what your level of manliness, that's not going to save you from the cold."

Sanosuke blinked at Yumika going back to the strips of hakama on her leg and the blanket he had just been thrown. "But you just said-"

"I just said what?"

"That if you don't have something to keep warm with, you'll die."

"You have a blanket, don't you?"

"Yeah . . . but . . . you . . . don't."

" . . .wh-what does that matter?"

Sanosuke held up the blanket to see just how big it was. "Yup. Don't you get it? We'll have to . . . to . . ." He almost couldn't bring himself to say it. "We'll have to share the blanket."

The sentence rang in the silence for a time, the howling wind outside seeming to mock him and Yumika struck dumbfounded, Sano's 'slight' embarrassment keeping him silent as well.

_Any second now,_ he thought, mentally cringing, _she's gonna blow up and slap me or something to that effect . . ._

"I- . . . I suppose you're right . . ." Yumika finally sighed, eyes down. "That thing is pretty big, right?"

"Y-yeah," Sano stammered slightly, the blow he expected not happening. "It's rather large . . ."

"Good. Bring it over here then. The sooner we get to sleep, the sooner this night is over."

Sanosuke shrugged, went over and sat down beside Yumika, throwing her one end of the blanket. They both scooted as far away as possible while still under the blanket.

"Good night," Yumika mumbled over her shoulder, "and I trust you to be a decent man, but . . . just in case . . ." She gripped her sword in her right hand.

"You won't need to worry about that . . ." he muttered.


End file.
